Spoilers Ahead:

Probably one of my favorite short manga. An interesting read that is great to show people who want to know what Junji Ito's work is like without having to read a major story of his. I distinctly remember reading this on Imgur on an old laptop in my room around the time I was in middle school and being fascinated by it, after randomly stumbling across it while mindlessly searching through images.

One thing that I've recalled about this story is the fact that it plays really well into anxiety, the characters see their holes and choose to go in, even the one character that supposedly learns their purpose is for execution as they had just awoken from a dream of how they were carved for criminals who do heinous crimes. Even with this newfound knowledge, upon seeing their hole they also choose to go in. The horror of the scenario is realized when, on the other side of the mountain a month later, we see that the dream, at least in the sense of what the holes will do to people is true, as we see a contorted body approaching the scientists.

The mystery element on whether or not the dream is true, along with the fact that we never even learn why the people of the modern day fit in the holes draws more mysticism to the entire thing. In this world are people reborn millennia later and see the same holes that they match from their past due to their crimes? Does the re-opening of this mountain happen by accident or is it connected in some way with the fact there are people that fit the holes? There are many questions left un-answered which makes the situation that much scarier, as the peoples untimely ends could have some higher meaning or could simply be people losing their minds and holes they think where meant for them but for all we know have simply been made for generic shapes of people in the past.

The anxiety caused however is probably one of the biggest fear factors of this story, unlike in other stories where it's a monster of some form that causes people great suffering the issue for the characters in this story is themselves. One thing that this reminds me of is Kierkegaard's explanation of anxiety, in which he goes into detail of how people acquire dread through the ability to do something, such as throwing oneself off the side of the cliff, a feeling people develop when looking over the top of it. In the instance of this story, the looking over the cliff is replaced with the finding of ones hole, and the fact that it is possible to enter it. One could say a simpler version of this story could be when someone looks over a cliff, and believes this is the place that they are going to die, with the horror being the giving in to this and throwing themselves off of it. The same kind of dread is done for both people when looking at the area in particular, however it is way better done within the writing and illustration of Junji Ito, with many more elements added in a such a way it enhances the horror of the scenario.

If there was any story one should give people who are unsure if they want to read more of Junji Ito's work it would be this one. Only taking 32 pages it takes less than 10 minutes to read the entire story but for many, even if years in the future where they forget fine details, they'll still remember if anything the aura of anxiety and dread the story exhumes.